Whipped Cream Difficulties

One of my grail guns (sort of: it’s complicated) is the H&K P7 pistol.

Yes, I know: “H&K: You suck and we hate you.” And I’ve heard the triggers on the P7 are…not great. (I’ve never actually shot one.) But it is such an interesting and cool design. And I could probably put together the money for one.

Stealing blatantly from Wikipedia:

The grip of this pistol features a built-in cocking lever located at the front of the grip. Before the pistol can be fired, this lever must be squeezed; thus this lever acts as a safety. The pistol is striker fired. Squeezing the cocking lever with a force of 70 N (15.7 lbf) cocks the firing pin. Once fully depressed, only 2 pounds of force are required to keep the weapon cocked. The weapon is then fired by pressing the single stage trigger rated at approximately 20 N (4.5 lbf) As long as the lever is depressed, the weapon fires like any other semi-automatic pistol. If the lever is released, the weapon is immediately de-cocked and rendered safe. This method of operation dispensed the need for a manual safety selector while providing safety for the user carrying the pistol with a chambered round, and increased the speed with which the pistol could be deployed and fired.

You’d kind of think remembering to squeeze the lever would make it harder to learn the gun. Perhaps. As I’ve said, I’ve never fired one. But in my experience with other pistols, gripping them hard enough to where I would (probably) depress a (hypothetical) cocking lever has never been a problem. Indeed, I suspect that Karl (official firearms trainer to WCD) would tell anyone who asked that I have a death grip on my guns when shooting, that if you shoved a lump of carbon between me and the gun you’d get diamonds when I’m done, and that I’d shoot better if I relaxed.

(At least, I suspect he’d say that if he could. I also feel like Karl is probably much like a priest, in that confidentiality prevents him from discussing the flaws of his students. At least, not unless there’s a court order.)

My ideal would be the M13 variant, because 13 rounds of 9mm goodness. But I’d settle for a M8. Or the M10, which is the .40 S&W variant.

When I see them in shops or at fun shows, they seem to go for $2,000 and up. “Up” is doing a lot of work here: check GunBroker to see what I mean.

Noted:

A variant known as the P7M13SD was produced in limited numbers exclusively for German special forces, featuring a longer (compared to the P7M13) threaded barrel and a sound suppressor.

Why is that significant? And what does this have to do with Christmas? (I’m really not expecting a P7 under the tree, thankyouverymuch, though I have been good this year. Mostly.)

The Internet Movie Firearms Database has a write-up on one of the more famous fictional users of the P7. He was originally intended to be carrying some sort of Walther, but I’m guessing the movie armorer suggested the P7M13 and everyone liked the look of it.

When he first brings out the weapon while threatening Takagi, he is shown removing a matching suppressor from the barrel, thus indicating it’s not a P7M13SD because there is no threaded barrel to use a suppressor. (The threads to attach the suppressor were actually inside the barrel of the gun, as there were no live rounds fired out of it.)

Because it’s just not Christmas until I see Hans Gruber fall from the Nakatomi Tower.